state churches

(noun)

State churches are organizational bodies within a Christian denomination which are given official status or operated by a state.

Related Terms

Examples of state churches in the following topics:

  • The Ecclesia

    • The state churches of some European nations would fit this type.
    • State churches are organizational bodies within a Christian denomination that have been given official status by a state, or are directly operated by a state.
    • The Anglican Church of England, for example, is a state church that does not have the adherence of all English citizens.
    • Although the word "ecclesial" itself stems from the Greek word for "church" or "gathering," ecclesias are not necessarily churches.
    • The Catholic Church applies the word "Church" only to Christian communities that, in the view of the Catholic Church, "have true sacraments in light of Apostolic succession" and that possess a priesthood and the Eucharist.

  • The Christian Church

    • The Christian Church is the assembly of followers of Jesus Christ; in Christianity, a church is the building where its members meet.
    • The Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy each claim to be the original Christian Church.
    • State churches are organizational bodies within a Christian denomination, given official status or operated by a state.
    • State churches are not necessarily national churches in the ethnic sense of the term, but the two concepts may overlap in a nation state where the state boundary largely corresponds to the distribution of a single ethnic group defined by a specific denomination.
    • State churches, by contrast, may also be minority denominations which are given political recognition by the state.

  • Separating Church and State

    • The Revolution's emphasis on liberty led to provisions for the separation of church from government (state) in the United States Constitution.
    • However, the phrase "separation of church and state" in this context is generally traced to a January 1, 1802, letter by Thomas Jefferson, addressed to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut and published in a Massachusetts newspaper.
    • The Flushing Remonstrance was a petition for religious freedom circulated in the colonies in 1657, and is considered a precursor to the Constitution's provision on the separation of church and state.
    • Some opposed support of any established church at the state level; for instance, Thomas Jefferson's influential Statute for Religious Freedom was enacted in 1786 to ensure religious freedom in Virginia.
    • Thomas Jefferson used the phrase "a wall of separation between Church and State" when he described the First Amendment's restriction on the legislative branch of the federal government.

  • Catholicism

    • ., with the Catholic Church the single largest religious denomination in the United States.
    • The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, or the Christian Church that is in full communion with the Pope.
    • By far, most Catholics in the U.S. belong to the Latin Church and the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church.
    • However, the Vatican II document Orientalium Ecclesiarum "Of the Eastern Churches" acknowledges that these Eastern Catholic communities are "true Churches" and not just rites within the Catholic Church.
    • There are 14 other Churches in the U.S. (23 within the global Catholic Church) that are in communion with Rome and fully recognized in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

  • The Revolution and Churches

    • Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as scribes for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions, and the Continental Congress.
    • This was because the English monarch was the head of the church.
    • The Anglican Communion was created, allowing a separated Episcopal Church of the United States that would still be in communion with the Church of England.
    • Jonathan Mayhew was a noted American minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts.
    • This is an interpretation of the proposed design for the first seal of the United States.

  • The Mormon Exodus

    • Today the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
    • This harsh treatment caused the body of the Church to move from one place to another - from Ohio to Missouri, and then to Illinois, where church members built the city of Nauvoo.
    • As a result of the conflict the Mormons were expelled from the state by Governor Boggs, and Rigdon and Smith were arrested and imprisoned in Liberty Jail.
    • According to church belief, God inspired Young to call for the Saints (as church members call themselves) to organize and head west, beyond the western frontier of the United States (into what was then Mexico, though the U.S.
    • In the spring of 1847, Young led the vanguard company to the Salt Lake Valley, which was then outside the boundaries of the United States and later became Utah.

  • The Mormons

    • With a small following, he organized the Church of Christ later that year, the progenitor of the Church of Latter-day Saints popularly known as "Mormons."
    • The 1838 Mormon War with other Missouri settlers ensued, culminating in the expulsion of adherents from the state.
    • According to church belief, God inspired Young to call for the Saints (as church members call themselves) to organize and head west, beyond the western frontier of the United States (into what was then Mexico, though the U.S.
    • In the spring of 1847, Young led the vanguard company to the Salt Lake Valley, which was then outside the boundaries of the United States and which later became Utah.
    • Today a vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), while a minority are members of other churches.

  • The Chora Church in Constantinople

    • The Chora Church's full name is the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora.
    • The church was first built in Constantinople the early fifth century.
    • Mosaics extensively decorate the narthices of the Chora Church.
    • By the fourteenth century when Theodore Metochites funded the interior decoration, Christianity was no longer a fledgling faith; it was a state religion in which even the emperor recognized Christ as the ultimate authority.
    • Parecclesion, Chora Church, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey.

  • The Church During the Italian Renaissance

    • Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist textual criticism of the New Testament.
    • The 95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe.
    • The City of Rome, the Papacy, and the Papal States were all affected by the Renaissance.
    • Peter's Basilica, perhaps the most recognised Christian church, was built on the site of the old Constantinian basilica in Rome.
    • Analyze the Church's role in Italy at the time of the Renaissance

  • The Anglican Church

    • Beginning with Henry VIII in the 16th century, the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and Catholic Church.
    • This contributed to a state of hostility between his young contemporaries and the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
    • All images in churches were to be dismantled.
    • Full restoration of the Catholic faith in England to its pre-Reformation state would take time.
    • They could no longer see it as a true church.